Artistic Consumption Log, Oct. 3, 2011-Oct. 9, 2011

BROOKLYN, N.Y.—It's the home stretch, folks: the last week of the New York Film Festival. I have three more reviews to write up this week, and then it's all over and done with...and maybe then I can go back to more extensive artistic consumption logs!

For now, though, you will all have to make do with another barebones one.

One thing I'd like to explain, though, as a preface. This weekend was Views from the Avant-Garde weekend at NYFF—a four-day showcase of some of the latest and brightest in experimental film. So a lot of the films I saw at the festival this past week were a part of this sidebar—all the Ben Rivers and Ernie Gehr shorts, Jerome Hiler's Words of Mercury, Nathaniel Dorsky's The Return and James Benning's Twenty Cigarettes. With the exception of the last title (not a bad film, by any means, just far less revelatory than Benning's last film, Ruhr), most of the rest was pretty mind-blowing; as I soaked up these images, I felt my conception of cinema literally expand in my head. (I'm almost thankful I didn't see a lot more of this kind of filmmaking this weekend than I did; my mind might have felt like it was about to explode!)

Oh yeah, and Melancholia is damn good—better than Lars von Trier's last film, Antichrist, for my money. It's available to view on demand, but it's certainly worth seeing on a big screen, if you can.

The Return (2011)

Films

New York Film Festival 2011 (all films screened at Walter Reade Theater in New York unless otherwise noted):
★ This Is Not a Film (2010, Jafar Panahi & Mojtaba Mirtahmasb)
★ Melancholia (2011, Lars von Trier), screened at Alice Tully Hall in New York
★ Sack Barrow (2011, Ben Rivers), screened at Francesca Beale Theater in New York
★ Slow Action (2010, Ben Rivers), screened at Francesca Beale Theater in New York
★ Crystal Palace (2011, Ernie Gehr)
★ Thank You for Visiting (2010, Ernie Gehr)
Mist (2010, Ernie Gehr)
★ ABRACADABRA (2009, Ernie Gehr)
★ Words of Mercury (2011, Jerome Hiler), screened at Francesca Beale Theater in New York
★ The Return (2011, Nathaniel Dorsky), screened at Francesca Beale Theater in New York
My Week With Marilyn (2011, Simon Curtis)
Twenty Cigarettes (2011, James Benning)

★ Weekend (1967, Jean-Luc Godard), screened at Film Forum in New York [second viewing]

Music

★ "Heroes" (1977, David Bowie)
★ Lodger (1979, David Bowie)

Theater

Nightlands (2011, Sylvan Oswald), performed at HERE Arts Center in New York